Tom Rothman, the longest serving film chief in Hollywood, has signed a multi-year extension of his contract as chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group.
He has been at the studio for over a decade, joining Sony Pictures in 2013 as chairman of TriStar Pictures before being named chairman of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group in 2015. As part of a 2021 contract extension, CEO was added to Rothman’s chairman title.
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In announcing his extension, Sony said that under Rothman the studio has achieved record profitability. It has certainly managed to more than hold its on against bigger rivals like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery despite lacking their access to vast treasure troves of intellectual property. Among the biggest hits that Rothman oversaw are the “Jumanji” franchise, “Anyone But You,” the “Venom” series, and “The Equalizer” trilogy.
He also helped revive Sony’s “Spider-Man” franchise by bringing in Marvel to produce the films, getting rewarded for his efforts with 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” a $1.9 billion smash. Efforts to extend the web of Spider-Man characters into a standalone cinematic universe have been less successful — Sony scored with the “Spider-Verse” animated movies, but spinoffs like “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter” floundered at the box office.
Rothman has also shown a willingness to bet on more challenging fare aimed at adults, such as Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” both of which scored with critics and audiences.
The studio’s upcoming slate includes Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later,” Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun,” and Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films, which will tell the story of each band member. There’s also “Karate Kid: Legends,” with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan reprising their roles from previous entries, as well as the fourth installment of “Spider-Man” and a live-action film of Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda.”
Rothman, though still as hard-charging and passionate about movies as ever, has entered his elder statesman phase in the industry, having been a mainstay for decades. Previously, Rothman was at Fox for 18 years, serving as co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment from 2000 to 2012. Before that, he was president of Twentieth Century Fox Film Group and President of Production for Twentieth Century Fox. He was the founder and first president of Fox Searchlight.
Prior to Fox, Rothman was president of worldwide production for the Samuel Goldwyn Company, Executive Vice President at Columbia Pictures and a partner at the New York entertainment law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
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